Trendy TreeHouse

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Shutter Love Winners | 4th of July

We have new Buttons! Visit HERE if you're a winner to grab it!

The | 4th of July | winners this week are....#1 goes to | Ashley Sisk

#2 | 3 Peas and a Bean

#3 | Les Cadeaux
#4 | Live Love Travel
#5 | 525,600 Minutes
#6 | Patriotic Crunch
#7 | {4th} of July
#8 | B.t.C.a.D
#9 | Stoneyville
#10 | DRW Photos
More Favorites | In No Particular Order
Thank you to everyone who entered last weeks theme | 4th of July |If you see your photo above, please visit our BUTTONS page to grab one.
Get your photos ready for this weeks theme | Share | and remember to share so others can join in with their photos.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Heath Bar Cake

We were invited over to a friends house for dinner last night. We asked what we could bring and they said, dessert. Yeah! I LOVE to bake. I asked my husband what he would like me to bake and he said something with Heath Bars (he's been on a Heath Bar kick for a while now). So, I googled Heath Bar cake and read through a few recipes before deciding on the one I'm going to share with you today. The jr. youth group from our church was also having an all night rock-a-thon and had asked for desserts so I decided to just make this recipe in two 9in circle cakes pans instead of the 9x13 pan that it called for. It took a little finagling on one part of the recipe but came out great. Everyone at the dinner loved it and I've heard that the jr. youth loved it as well. It's an easy dessert to make and SO delicious! Give it a try!

Heath Bar Cake:

Ingredients:

1 (18 ounce) box German chocolate cake mix
3 eggs (or as called for by your cake mix)
1/3 cup oil (or as called for by your cake mix)
1 1/3 cups water (or as called for by your cake mix)
1 cup caramel ice cream topping (I like Smuckers)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 ounce) container whipped topping
3 -4 Heath candy bars, chopped
(you can buy a bag of already chopped Heath bar for cheaper than the candy bars)

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 40 mins

1 Bake cake mix according to package directions, using a 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan.
(if you need two cakes, round cakes pans work great)
2 While still hot, punch holes in top of cake with a skewer or large fork.
3 Pour sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping over hot cake.
(This is where you need to think on your toes if you use two round cake pans. The round cakes were higher in the middle so the caramel and SCM just went to the edges....)

So, I just used the spatula and moved the liquid around till it was almost absorbed into the cake. I let it sit for a bit and then moved it around again. It worked pretty well to do it that way too.
Let cake cool.
Spread with whipped topping and sprinkle chopped Heath bars over all
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I hope you can use this recipe for your next gathering or to just make for after dinner on a Tuesday night! Have a great week friends!

Friday, July 8, 2011

DIY Jalapeno Poppers

This great recipe comes from my (Tara's) mom. We had these over the 4th of July weekend and I fell in love! They are addictive. These aren't deep fried, like some you have seen or had at restaurants. These have NO breading. So they are low carb. And for me, that is wonderful. I am low carbing lately. ;-)

So try out this recipe and go by Pine Creek Style (my moms blog) and let her know what you think. Don't forget to follower her too. She has a pretty great list of posts to read!

This appetizer is awesome with BBQ's, Mexican food or served at an appetizer party!

1 dozen jalapeno's, wash and cut in half.

Make sure you don't touch your eyes. You may want to wear gloves and a mask.

They can be very strong. I use a spoon to clean out the seeds and membranes. then I rinse them again.(*I also put them in the refrigerator to get cold before I cut and clean them.)

The ingredients are simple:

2 packages of cream cheese, softened

1 package of grated cheddar or mexican cheese

1 pound of Bacon, cut in half
1 dozen Jalapeno's, cut in half and clean

Hot Sauce, your choice

Garlic pepper

For the cheese mixture:

Blend the cream cheese, grated cheese, season with garlic pepper and hot sauce. Mix well. Then take a spoon and fill the Jalapeno halves. Next wrap one half of a Bacon strip around the middle of the pepper. Then drizzle more hot sauce over over the top!

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 425 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Judge by the bacon being done. Let set at least 5 minutes before serving. Yields 24.

Yummy!

A great appetizer to serve guests...

Thursday, July 7, 2011

6 Strand Braid Tutorial

I've been braiding my girls hair for years. All sorts. I love doing their hair. Family, friends and even strangers have asked, "Why don't you write a book?" I have thought about it. I have pictures of all their hairdo's, just not steps of how to do them. Maybe one day.

But to get to todays post. BRAIDS! This particular braid has 6 strands. There are two types of braids you can do with 6 strands. This is one of them.

Start by picking out your string, yarn, raffia, hair. I would say the easiest would be to start learning on the bead string. I got mine (below) from our local craft store in the kids craft section.

Step 1...Put all six strands together. Use a small rubber band to hold them together.

I braided this down a bit so you could get a better image of what I was doing. I also used 6 colors so you could easily pick out what I was trying to show you

Step 2...Your strands should look like this.

Step 3...Start on the far left red strand. Go under the orange.

Step 4...Now take the red strand and go over the top of the yellow.

Step 5...Starting on the right now, take the blue strand, go over the top of the purple.

Step 6...Again with the blue, go under the green strand.

Step 7...With the blue, go over the top of the red.

Step 8...Tighten all strands and repeat until desired length is achieved.

Tip...an easy way to remember this.

From the left...Under, Over

From the right...Over, Under, Over

Repeat!

This will be your finished look

You can used this for a number of things...bracelets, hair accessory, belts, bookmarks and more.

I love braiding and even have my girls learning already. My oldest is up to the 5 strand. She loves it too. We are both teaching the younger two on the 3 and 4 strands now.

What do you think?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Create and Share | Features too!

| Create and Share |

Don't forget to grab one of our {BUTTONS}

I always look forward to this day of the week. It's fun to go through all the fabulous link ups.

So if you see that you have been featured, go by and grab a...

"Trendy Blog Award Button"

{Here are a few of my favorites that linked up last week}
Click on photos below to read more!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Shutter Love Tuesdays | 4th of July

We have been loving hosting {Shutter} Love every week and wanted to thank you all for participating each week. You have all made it so fun. We enjoy looking at each of your photos every week.

This weeks theme is | 4th of July |

To see all the rules for this fun party, please go HERE.

Want to see all the PAST Shutter Love Winners?

Check out our Shutter Love Winners | Directory in the Pages above.

Don't forget to check out future Shutter Love Themes too!

AND COMMENT BELOW as much as you like.
Go HERE to grab one of our Buttons-We have NEW BUTTONS!

Tara's | 4th of July | Photo

This is a photo of my kiddos....chilling in the pool while watching fireworks. LOL They loved it! I love the arms in the air. Like "YEAH"! Fireworks "ROCK"! Hee! Hee! We spent our day swimming and BBQ'ing. Played some games. Swam some more and headed home. It was great time! I look forward to reading about your days and can't wait to see your pics!

Jamie's 4th of July Photo
Here's my little one on her first Independence Day!!!

Link up your photo entries below. Don't forget to click on the LIKE button if you LOVE an entry.